A group of local student-scientists from Pensacola’s Booker T. Washington High School are studying the environmental impacts of the Pensacola Bay Bridge construction project. The students are part of the school’s Marine Science Academy, an intensive program that combines college-level oceanograp

Crews are working to construct the new eastbound (Pensacola to Gulf Breeze) bridge and as much of the westbound (Gulf Breeze to Pensacola bridge as possible. The new westbound bridge will sit partially within the footprint of the current bridge, so it can’t be completed until all traffic is transitioned to the eventual eastbound bridge and the current structure demolished.

The first of 210 “pi-girders” are being placed for the new Pensacola Bay Bridge. Of all the components for the new bridge, these girders are the heaviest. Each Pi girder is 150-long and consists of two beams and a section of the multi-use path. The girders weigh approximately 202-tons, or 404,000-pounds.